Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

The red and light beige finished quilt pattern What to do with those scraps?   Having been raised in Missouri and having an artist for a mother taught me not to throw away leftovers before I played with them to see what they could become.   I finally finished the red/light beige quilt pattern I had been working on in polymer clay and after storing the canes, I had scraps.   For anyone who does not know about polymer clay extruders here is a quick description.    Makin's Ultimate Extruder There is a tube with a plunger and on the other end of the tube is a cap where you place a disc with a shape cut out. The clay is pushed through the tube and out the cutout in the disc.   The shapes are then put together to form a pattern called a ‘cane’.    The cane in this case is a square and can be reduced or lengthened to be the size I want.   You can see various sizes in the photos.   The design continues through the entire cane making it possible to slice several pieces

Last Friday I shared my first buttons in polymer clay.   This week I’m sharing my first bird cane in polymer clay. For those of you who do not know what a ‘cane’ is in polymer clay, it is a long roll of clay that has other colors and patterns in it.   When you make slices from the end, the same pattern appears with each cut.   Look at last Friday’s post for better pictures. I decided to make a bird we have locally, the Black-headed Grosbeak who lives in our pine-oak forests.     I had those colors of clay and I like him.   He has a short stout beak for seed cracking and is butterscotch and black with some white.   I traced a picture of the bird, made a copy to put under my glass workspace and found my clay colors – butterscotch, black, white and tan.   The limb is copper and gray.   The body was first, then the head and last the wings.   I put green around and all this sounds so much easier than it was and took longer too!    I made a short cane and ended up with 3 somewhat